Oxygen is inhaled into a human body through respiration and then supplied to each organ of the human body by means of blood. The supplied oxygen is consumed for brain activities and kinetic energy.
Oxygen consumption in a living body is significantly different in each organ. As an example, the brain consumes more oxygen than muscle.
Among all viscera and organs, the brain consuming a largest amount of oxygen has a weight of merely 1.4 kg, which is just 2% of the body weight, but it consumes about 25% of total oxygen consumption of the entire body.
Since the brain does not have a material such as ‘myoglobin’ capable of keeping oxygen at some extent as muscle, the brain immediately consumes all of the supplied oxygen.
If inhaled air has no oxygen, a partial pressure of oxygen required by pulmonary blood does not occur and thus there may be a risk that just one breath of oxygen-free air causes loss of consciousness.
Oxygen performs oxidization in a human body and helps resist infectious microbes and pathogens. A human being cannot live unless oxygen is continuously supplied to every cell of the body. This action is made by the heart and a pair of lungs. The pair of lungs has about seven hundred million alveoli to supply oxygen to blood and the blood is supplied to everywhere of the human body by means of a pumping action of the heart.
The blood of most modern people are acidified due to lack of exercises and intake of harmful food, and cholesterol adheres to blood vessel such that disturbs the flow of blood, which becomes a source of all adult diseases. However, weakened functions of the human body can be effectively recovered through supply of fresh oxygen.
As an example of an oxygenated mineral water generator for producing mineral water containing a large amount of oxygen, there is “oxygenated mineral water generator” disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2003-0034755, which is owned by the present inventor.
In the oxygenated mineral water generator, oxygen is produced by an oxygen generator using three methods, i.e., a PSA method, a membrane method, and a flat sheet membrane method, and then oxygen is rapidly dissolved in mineral water to produce oxygenated mineral water.
However, the conventional oxygenated mineral water generator mentioned above has a complicated oxygen generating process and moisture generated when a compressor sucks, compresses, and then supplies air to a nozzle affects zeolite existing in the nozzle, resulting in abrupt deterioration of oxygen purity when oxygen is generated. In addition, noise and vibration generated from the compressor may cause stress to a user and disturb sleep, and bacteria may propagate therein.
Recently, an oxygen generating apparatus using electrolysis has been developed and used. However, since the apparatus uses an alkaline electrolyte solution, it has disadvantages in that much attention should be paid to handling thereof and a safety problem may occur.
Therefore, in an effort to solve such problems, there is “apparatus for producing oxygen using water” disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0031091, which is owned by the present inventor. The conventional apparatus produces high purity oxygen by electrolyzing mineral water without using an electrolyte, additives or the like, thereby ensuring convenient operation, no noise generation, high efficiency, low power consumption, a compact appearance, and safe and easy management due to nonuse of an electrolyte such as alkali.
Although the related art has such advantages, it has a problem that ozone (O3) is generated at a positive electrode plate in a small amount in addition with oxygen generated at a negative electrode plate and is discharged outside. Ozone (O3) is a pure allotrope of oxygen but unstably produced from reaction of dioxygen (O2) and atomic oxygen (O), and has molecular weight of 48 g/mol, boiling point of −112° C., and specific gravity of 1.67.
Ozone has some benefits for protecting living things from harmful ultraviolet radiation, degrading pesticides and heavy metals, sterilizing, deodorizing, and air purifying, and the like. On the other hand, repeated exposure to ozone causes irreversible damage to the lungs. Even a low concentration of ozone cause variety health problems such as chest pain, cough, nausea, throat irritation, and hyperemia when inhaled. In addition, ozone aggravates bronchitis, heart disease, lung cancer, asthma, and reduces lung capacity.
Ozone is an oxidant and acts as a strong stimulus source for respiratory organs. Therefore, organs that are primarily affected when exposed to ozone are respiratory organs and the organs that are most affected by ozone are also the respiratory organs. It is known that ozone in the atmosphere causes or worsens symptoms of patients with chronic respiratory diseases.
Among chronic respiratory diseases, asthma is most problematic in which severe symptoms are caused by temporary stimulation.
Ozone also affects the central nervous system, leading to various changes in the symptoms and behaviors associated therewith.
Thus, when exposed to high concentration of ozone, symptoms of the nervous system such as headache and unconsciousness may occur.
Further, ozone stimulates a sensitive part of the human body and causes stimulation symptoms due to pungency thereof.
Effects of ozone stimulation are first exhibited in senses that accept stimuli such as eyes and nose.
Whether ozone has carcinogenicity has not yet been proven experimentally. In addition, it is difficult to directly deduce the relationship between ozone and cancer development because it is difficult to separate the influence of ozone separately from epidemiological studies. However, ozone is known to denature proteins constituting the human body, react with unsaturated fatty acids constituting the membrane of the human body, leading to cause toxicity and damage cells.
Thus, it was necessary to efficiently filter ozone generated during electrolysis of mineral water and ozone compounds, which are combined with ozone and various organic and inorganic materials such as calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and silicon (Si), etc., by an ozone removal filter.